Friday, August 31, 2007

From the July 1954 issue of Tomb of Terror #16comes another neat E.C./Wood/Davis-inspired bit of fun from Howard Nostrand. Oddly enough, Overstreet calls this issue a “Special Sci-Fi Issue” when actually only 2 of the four stories are sci-fi (?!) I mean, does this story here seem sci-fi to you? Still, this was a good little yarn for The Tomb to end it’s glorious run with before finally caving in to Comics Code scare tactics and thus becoming “ Thrills of Tomorrow “ for only 4 boring issues full of reprints and weak Kirby Stuntman covers.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Our second spotlight on modern artists influenced by pre-code horror comics features Canadian creep Rob Sacchetto, (the madman behind Zombie Portraits), who recently completed a "throwback Tales from the Crypt / EC Comics style tale of zombie terror" called Fearless Frankie, where all the action and gruesome horror takes place in the jungles of Viet Nam.

Pre-code comic horror fans take note: SONY’S latest “ICON OF HORROR” collection brings four great Sam Katzman Sci-Fi / Horror classics from the '50s for the first time to DVD on October 16th. Included in this 2-disc set are: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, THE GIANT CLAW, and THE WEREWOLF!

As promised, here’s another Lee Elias illustrated story. With his thick, rich, detailed line work and great sense of color, Lee’s mouth watering nightmare visuals more than make up for the poorly paced, confusing storyline here (in fact don’t read this one, just look at the pretty pictures.) For a truly mind blowing experience, type “ Lee Elias “ into the GCD search engine and just look at all of his Harvey horror covers. Amazing!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Here it is, the final story from Chamber of Chills #6 and it’s a jungle terror doozy! Great inks too from my favorite Harvey cover artist Lee Elias, who also illustrated a mountain of excellent work in not only the golden age but also the silver (including, but definitely not limited to my favorite era run of kooky Green Arrow stories in DC’s World’s Finest!) I’ll post another Elias story next to give you an even nicer taste of his amazing artistic talent in the horror genre.

Enter neophytes (and bow-tie wearin’ sissies named Chauncey), into today’s den of evil! Pull up a necronomicon and prepare for your own hazing slash initiation into the black order of the Riders of the Night! Yes, it’s another tale of terror from the March 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #6--- ARRGHH!! YIIIII!!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Just in time for Halloween, Gemstone Publishing conducts readers of all ages on a tour of one of EC Comics’ creepiest corners with the EC Archives: Vault of Horror Volume 1 HC ($49.95), a new collection culled from one of publisher William Gaines’ most notorious and popular titles.

The 212-page, full-color EC Archives: Vault of Horror Volume 1 HC is scheduled to ship on October 31 and contains the first 6 issues COMPLETE!

Re-visiting the Dungeon of Doom yesterday only reminded me just how whacked-out and repulsive issue #6 of Chamber of Chills really is. So, bad news for you Harvey haters because for the first time on this blog I’ll be posting the ENTIRE ISSUE over the next few days! Pull out your barf bags my friends, today brings you (gag!) ---Jelly Death!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

If your idea of fun is watching a beautiful, innocent girl’s face melt right off the skull inside a monster’s disintegrating machine then this is the story for you! I really don’t have much else to add today…

Saturday, August 25, 2007

William Castle was one of a handful of great directors who actually made films in the 50's and 60's that were generally both fun and spooky (and felt just like pre-code horror comics come to life!) This great clip presents Castle himself introducing 3 different trailers from some of his best films: The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, and 13 Ghosts... and all 3 featured wild gimmicks like "Percepto", "Illusion-O", and "Emergo" that audience members would actually see, feel, and experience for real while watching the film!

An anonymous commenter the other day asked me to post an example of “stupid and derivative” so ask and yee shall receive! It’s not the best worst example I could find, in fact it’s actually a fun little stupid tale of sudden insanity leading to over the top brutality and gory violence. But then again it loses points for not being especially well written, and you can knock off a few more points for Mannie Bank’s somewhat flimsy artwork. It’s definitely inspired in a maniacal sort of way, but it was greasy shock stuff like this that really nailed the coffin lid tightly shut on pre-code horror comics in ‘54.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Nearly 50 posts and I'm just now getting around to a story from Ace Magazines who published four interesting 50's pre-code horror titles: Baffling Mysteries, Hand of Fate, Web of Mystery and of course The Beyond featuring our creepy tale for today. This is a well written story about a haunted camera that can photograph grisly, unsolved murders from the past. Another first today, I'm finally posting something by golden age fan favorite Lou Cameron who, amongst other things, did some great early work for DC as well.

"...the capital of online comic book horrors... saying "Not the best story THOIA has run" is a bit like saying "one of Beethoven's lesser symphonies!"---Quasar Dragon

"...the object of all horror chicks' wet dreams... a comixkaze of awesome!"---Killer Kittens

"...an online repository of vintage comic fear fare where individual stories from long out-of-print issues are posted in high resolution, page by page. For a fan of EC, Atlas and other Silver Age-era comic companies, it is pure heaven (and hell)..."---Bryan Reesman (Attention Deficit Delirium)